Bathroom Psychology

[spacebug]

My office shares 2 bathrooms on our floor with several other small businesses/artist work spaces. The bathrooms were labeled as a Mens and Womens. Earlier this year, one of our neighbor businesses petitioned to change the signage to unisex, which has since happened. There were a few reasons for this- I signed on because I think the designation is unnecessary in order to do what you need to do in there, and can be an annoyance (or in the case of one acquaintance, a major legal battle) for transgender folks.

Anyway, I note that people still generally use the bathroom with the label that used to apply to them, even if either one is available. This is true for me, but it's because the former womens room I find to be cleaner and, as it doesn't have a urinal, is free from the overpowering smell of urinal cake. It makes me wonder if the dudes still use the former mens room because having a urinal is convenient, if it's just out of habit, or if it's some other reason.

Comments

[spacebug.livejournal.com]

Hehe. Reminds me of Pretty In Pink when Duckie thinks the tampon machine is a candy dispenser. I don't think I knew of the existence of urinal cakes until my late teens or even early twenties. I think I first became aware of them because they were referenced in a Simpsons episode or something weird like that. Ah, pop culture.

[hexagonalcarbon.livejournal.com]

Huh. I've always found the smell of urinal cakes to be comforting. Usually it's a sign that all is in order and well maintained in a restroom.

[soylentmean.livejournal.com]

As someone who has used hundreds, if not thousands of public restrooms (of both genders), I honestly think the perfect solution is one womens restroom and one unisex bathroom.

Lines very rarely ever build up in front of the mens restroom, and womens-labeled bathrooms are a million, zillion times cleaner on average than the mens bathrooms are. Even mens restrooms without urinals (which is common in convenience stores and the like) tend to be in much worse shape and smell much worse than womens restrooms.

Until somebody can find a way to force men to sit down when they pee, I'm all for gendered restrooms (with a strong preference for at least one unisex restroom around).

[spacebug.livejournal.com]

Heh. Apparently the women's rooms at the Ordway theatre are twice the size of the men's room to compensate for the lines that happen. Personally, while I mildly envy the peeing convenience male hardware affords, especially when camping, and especially at Burning Man when wearing things like multiple layers of long underwear with a voluminous tutu that you'd like to not get all grody is not uncommon, I'm also relieved I don't have to experience "the trough".